As a story on Sunday recently showed, there’s a big debate about the role of screens in kids’ lives and whether they’re helping or hindering development. But Apple is looking at it in a different way, with its latest ad showing how the iPhone can help parents assist with child-rearing, whether it’s keeping tabs, finding the dog, teaching them maths or controlling the lights.
Apple has aimed to position its products as essential creative companions through its ‘Your Verse’ campaign, with the last major ad featuring a voiceover from The Dead Poet’s Society. But for the next instalment, it’s ditched the words and focused on the actions of famed conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and deaf travel writer Cherie King to show just how useful the iPad is.
For a few years now, the tech behemoths have been at the top of the chain in terms of brand value. That trend has continued this year in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study, but there’s been a change at the top, with Google making an acquisition of a different kind—the number one spot ahead of Apple.
Think of your typical Bentley driver and it’s not likely to conjure up images of tech savvy early adopters. But, like many of its competitors, the luxury car brand is integrating technology into its expensive rides—and also into its advertising.
Robin Williams’ stirring monologue from the Dead Poets Society pulled at the heartstrings sufficiently to ensure that Apple’s ‘Your Verse’ TVC for the iPad Air was awarded Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact award for January.
Apple has given second life to the Pixies’ 1988 track ‘Gigantic’ in a new spot that will have you mouthing along to the chorus about 45 seconds into the 90-second spot.
Apple is harnessing the value of poetry in a new ad that aims to promote the iPad Air. The 90-second spot couples an excerpt spoken by Robin Williams in the Dead Poets Society with video footage that showcases the splendour of human endeavour. PLUS: see which other brands have dabbled in verse to flog products.
Sometimes you just can’t escape lining up. The portaloo at the festival, the cashier at the supermarket, the coolest new bar. But no-one really likes doing it, so it is fairly hard to fathom why anyone would do it for a new phone. Plenty do, of course (even though they don’t actually know why). And the companies selling them go to great lengths to butter these strange tech fiends up and ensure they don’t get queue fatigue, as evidenced by Vodafone and Telecom’s launch festivities for the new iPhones.
Apple found plenty of success when it added some colour to its iPods. And while some think Steve Jobs would be rolling in his grave over the company’s shift to cheaper handsets, that’s where the company is headed after it announced the launch of the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S. And it’s released an ad via TBWA\ to promote its colourful models.
Airmail app is Sim Ahmed’s new go-to productivity tool. It’s simple and unobtrusive, just the way an email client should be.
It would be ungracious of Apple to create tablet ads mocking its competitors because it’s leading the pack in that field, however Microsoft has no such qualms when it comes to poking fun at the iPad.
In April this year, international media reported on the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) decision to refuse registration for Apple’s iPad Mini trademark on the grounds it’s simply descriptive. But within days of the story breaking, the USPTO was backtracking on its decision.
I launched my first app on the Apple App Store towards the beginning of May. It’s a Newsstand magazine app called Aucklandia, which shows some of my street photography work and little stories about each photo. I’m taking the opportunity to share with you what I’ve learned in my first month as a bona fide app developer.
You may have noticed an inordinate amount of frothing at the mouth from Apple acolytes yesterday as the company announced some significant changes, including a newly redesigned iOS and Mac Pro, as well as iTunes Radio and multi-tasking. And it’s promoting its changes, the importance of design and the human experience its products offer with a new and intimate campaign via TBWA\ in the US.
One of the handy things about having an app in the Apple App Store is the iOS developer centre , which comes with early access to new builds of the operating system. After downloading and playing with the beta version of iOS 7 for iPhone I’ve come to the conclusion that Apple’s made real strides to compete with Android, but has managed to get hit by the ugly stick on the way.
Apple smartphones are on the decline while Samsung’s star is burning brighter, but the iPhone and iPad manufacturer is still leaps and bounds ahead of competitors in New Zealand, according to mobile ad network InMobi.
Like Eldorado, the fountain of youth and a decent cup of coffee at midnight – achieving inbox zero is a goal many set out on, but very few ever achieve. Mailbox App for iPhone (free from the Apple App Store) helps those on their own journeys to an uncluttered email account, using sleek software which makes you look at Apple’s native Mail client with disdain.
Ohbaby becomes the latest magazine publisher to join the digital fray with the launch of its magazine on Apple’s Newsstand platform.
Digital Arts Network’s Ross Howard talks about the year-long development of TVNZ’s OnDemand app, building an in-app advertising platform, and the possibilities of integrating major social elements into the product in the near future.
There’s been plenty of news about hacking in recent weeks, from local examples like Telecom and Yahoo’s email debacle, to the takeover of Burger King and Jeep’s Twitter accounts, to break-ins to Twitter, Apple and Facebook. It’s a fairly common occurrence these days, and while we might add in an exclamation mark instead of a 1 to our password and feel a bit more secure about our data, a fairly terrifying Wired article from late last year that looked into the world of online security shows that “no matter how complex, no matter how unique, your passwords can no longer protect you.”
When tablet computers first arrived on the scene, they were slated as something of a saviour for the ailing magazine industry; a medium that offered the utility of digital technology but actually allowed publishers to make money from it. That certainly hasn’t come to pass in New Zealand yet, and there have been a couple of false starts in that space already. But with impressive download figures and an endorsement from Apple in its best of list at the end of 2012, McHugh Media’s Mindfood iPad app could just be a glimpse into the future.
Five Kiwi apps have floated above the rest in Apple’s pick of this year’s best in the New Zealand App Store.
Dow Design is on a mission to prove the commercial value of good design. And with a win in the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards for Fonterra, a finalist in the new Best Effect Award for Hellers, a number of big redesigns for big FMCG brands, it seems to be doing a good job of it. Founder Annie Dow and business development director Jenny McMillan speak their piece.
While Volkswagen dominates overseas, research showed that Kiwis thought the brand was too cold, too bland and too European. So to change that, it invested heavily in indigenous research and advertising, launched some very successful new products and quickly went from ‘niche street to main street’. National marketing manager Denise Goodwin opines on the year that was.
Findings from InMobi’s Mobile Insights Report Q3 show Apple remains the dominant force in the New Zealand market, with 42 percent of total impressions, a nine percent increase from last quarter. But there are also positive signs for Android, climbing five percent to take 34 percent of the total market share. PLUS: infographic action.
Apple does a stellar job of cementing brand loyalty through hardship and scarcity. Maybe other brands should take heed.
You may have seen Samsung’s feisty print ad dissing the features of the soon-to-launch iPhone 5. Now Samsung has launched a TVC in the US that once again takes aim at the lemming-like Apple fans by trying to show that the tech company du jour is, in fact, a bit behind the eight ball and its products—block your ears Apple lovers—are so mainstream they’re even popular with parents.
Comedy Central’s sleepy gem, Mitt gets the bad lip reading treatment, Adidas flies the GB flag post Olympics, Mini gets musical, everyone loves sentient vending machines, famous last words, a thriller like you’ve never seen, gymnastic cross-dressing entertainment, a trip back into the mists of time with Apple, the invisible bike helmet, Tim & Eric, the animated story of Lego, a very accurate brand glossary, how not to advertise your product, and Ariel gets some work done.
